


After Death You Haunt Me

by Eggplantouma, Kyary (Eggplantouma)



Series: After Death You Haunt Me: ending 1 [1]
Category: Marble Hornets
Genre: Alternate Universe - Purgatory, Angst, Clear lakes 44 is not canon in this story, Everyone is Dead, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Lore - Freeform, Lots of Angst, M/M, Multiple Endings, My Own AU, Not Focused On Romance, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, This can ruin Marble Hornets for you., alternative universe, dead, marble hornets only, mature - Freeform, not focused on relationships, not slenderverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-09-30 21:29:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 18,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17231537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggplantouma/pseuds/Eggplantouma, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggplantouma/pseuds/Kyary
Summary: Tim wakes up in the strangest world. Turns out, he’s dead.





	1. Apologies and tension

The last of the world he knew faded out to a black. Tim woke up in a gray world filled with nothing but a gray sky and black grass. He didn’t feel anything like pain here. It was dull.

 

His heart rate should’ve been rapid right now with the fear starting to grow, but it didn’t. It was nowhere he had been to and obviously not soothing. Tim staggered back, finally taking in what was going on. He was somewhere strange with nobody around. He was afraid of what this could mean. The Operator could be anywhere. This could be the ark. This could mean torture all over again.

 

Tim had a relapse and fell to the ground. He screamed, not wanting to go through the trauma ever again.

 

“WHY?! WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME?! JUST KILL ME!”

 

After a while of panicking, he looked around. Nobody was there. Nothing was there except for the scenery he was in.

 

This was confusing enough. Couldn’t The Operator just come at him? This didn’t seem to be the normal world. No, The Operator can’t hurt anyone without a vessel or proxy. Then why wasn’t Alex-no...Alex is dead.

 

Alex has been dead ever since Tim killed him.

 

Right?

 

Yes...

 

Either way, the Operator didn’t seem to want to kill its victims, did it? Alex fed that thing victims so maybe it did. If that’s so then why are the sole survivors even surviving? Jessica and Tim were the only two who survived as far as he knew.

 

It’s either the Operator wants to feed on victims, or it simply wants to drive them all down a path of madness.

 

Tim knew it would never be clear. He wasn’t going to continue the investigation after everything that happened.

 

There wasn’t much he could do. Tim got up and walked forward. The further he walked, the more trees he found. Soon there was a forest. Rosswood park gave him numerous traumatic experiences, so it was hard to continue. Still, it was the only thing he encountered that wasn’t a field.

 

He couldn’t help thinking, maybe the Operator is trying to make him another Alex.

 

Then, there came a shack. Tim felt like he was being watched all of a sudden. He had no weapons and he had no idea what to do.

 

Then, there was a flash of mustard yellow running by the shack. Tim knew he had seen that. He knew that he had killed him.

 

The man ran after the mustard yellow.

 

The hooded man stopped and turned around.

 

“Tim?”

 

This caught him off guard. Tim blinked and got into a defensive stance. “Brian. How are you alive?”

 

Brian seemed to relax a bit, still tense. “I’m not. When did you die?”

 

“Die?”

 

“Yeah, you’re dead.”

 

This horrified Tim as he checked for a pulse. There was none. He looked straight into the mask Brian wore. “I’m...dead?”

 

“Yes. You are.” Brian said, seeming more hostile now.

 

Tim fell to his knees. He laughed and cried at the predicament.

 

The man above him was uncaring. He coldly turned around, leaving Tim.

 

“Wait! No! Brian!”

 

Tim, after some trouble getting up, started chasing Brian again. “Please wait!”

 

Brian stopped and quickly turned around. “You lied to me, Tim! You were the cause of all this mess! After looking through your medical files, I see now. I thought Alex was the one who brought that thing to us! No! It was you! I thought I could trust you Tim.”

 

“No, please, let me explain.”

 

“No! I couldn’t bother restoring your memory again. I was done.”

 

“Brian, I want to talk. I don’t want to keep all of my secrets. Even if you know already, I want to explain.”

 

The male looked down on him. “Fine. Follow me. We aren’t exactly safe here. Even after death, we can’t guarantee that we’re absolutely safe.”

 

They both walked until another house appeared. Brian unlocked the door and opened it, waiting for Tim to walk in. After he did, Brian looked outside one last time before shutting and locking the door.

 

It was relatively dark but a few lanterns were enough to keep it from being completely dark.

 

Brian sat down and took off his mask. “So, explain to me why you lied.”

 

Tim looked away with guilt. “I didn’t know that my hallucinations were real. I’d didn’t know that my medical history would affect so much. I know I had trouble, but you were my first real friend. I couldn’t tell you of my past like that.”

 

“I trusted you. If we were such close friends then-,”

 

“I know! I know ok? It’s my fault everything happened. I was getting better. I didn’t know that you would get affected by this. I thought that Alex was the reason too, remember?”

 

There was a pause before he continued. “I’m sorry I did this to you, but you weren’t exactly a complete saint during this either. You literally caused me to have a seizure!”

 

“That’s your fault!”

 

Tim went silent for a bit until Brian stood up to go to the kitchen.

 

“I really am sorry for all of this. I’m so sorry for killing you.”

 

Brian froze at the doorway. “You didn’t kill me. I just gave up. Look, I kind of get it. I’m still very mad at you.”

 

“I know.”

 

“In the end, Alex is dead. That’s all that matters now.”

 

Brian went to the kitchen. After a few minutes, he came back with some drinks. He gave one to Tim.

 

“I bet you have some questions of your own.”

 

“Yeah,”

 

With a sigh, Brian started speaking about the world they were in. “You’re definitely dead. This isn’t a joke.”

 

“I know, but why aren’t there more people?”

 

“This is more of a place for people like us. Those who have seen the Operator and have strong connections die and come here from what I’ve gathered. However it’s not the Ark. that’s where most of the bodies are. We’re in more of a purgatory.”

 

“I see,”

 

“There are probably more people out there, but from what I know about this place, it’s more like a personal room for specific people. There are many more, but it’s all categorized by which of the people went through the experience together. You, me, Jay, and Alex are all in this one. Sarah and Seth probably are too. It all has to do with association.”

 

“How do you know all of this?”

 

“I didn’t until Alex died. He’s a bit...different. I wouldn’t say that Alex got back to his old self. It’s more like he’s self aware about the full story. He knows what this place is. He knows everything about it because of the Operator. I met him and he was hostile until realizing that there’s no point.”

 

“What about that thing then. Does it have access here?”

 

“No, this is just where the dead people spiritually end up.”

 

“Can another purgatory be reached? Are we just trapped here forever?”

 

“It’s not unheard of but it’s rare for someone to jump into or from ours. I don’t know how long we’ll be here. As long as that thing is alive, I assume we’ll stay here.”

 

Tim instinctively pulled on his hair. “Man, I don’t know what to do now. I thought that it was over.”

 

“It is for us.”

 

“What about Jessica? Will she end up in this place?”

 

“Most likely,”

 

They both sat in silence until Tim asked another two questions. “Is Jay here? What did you mean when you said that we weren’t safe even after death?”

 

“Jay’s fine. He’s living somewhere else right now. I...don’t know if I would talk about the second one right now. Even though it’s safer in here, we’re never truly alone. Something’s watching us.”

 

Tim resisted the urge to ask. “I see,”

 

“Until you get your own house constructed, you should stay here.”

 

“Right, ok...”

 

Brian led him to a guest room with a bed and desk. “Not much entertainment here, so you can go outside only of I know what you’re doing out there.”

 

“Why?”

 

“I need to keep track of everyone to make sure nothing’s going on. I’d also recommend that you don’t snoop around my room.”

 

The suspicious activity was odd, but Tim couldn’t complain.

 

Before Brian left the room, he spoke. “I don’t think I can ever forgive you, but I won’t forget that you didn’t want that thing in your life. I never wanted to hurt you when I was alive. I was mad at you, but my target was Alex.”

 

He closed the door and walked away. Tim could hear every footstep in the quiet world he now “lived” in.

 

What exactly was the threat? Tim didn’t know. All he could do was sleep. He didn’t think that after dying you would need sleep, but he didn’t think he’d even end up here. He also didn’t feel well about sleeping in Brian’s house. After all, they weren’t on the best terms. It was something to note that the only things that weren’t grayscale were him and Brian. That’s probably because they didn’t originate from this place.

 

Outside was pitch black as Tim closed his eyes. It felt just like death all over again.


	2. Weirder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim wakes up to notice something strange.

Tim woke up to the whiteness outside his window. It seemed to be daytime.

 

He never felt calm in the woods, but he knew it wouldn’t do any good to leave him. Not knowing what to do, Tim got up to look for Brian.

 

The hallway was empty. There wasn’t even a picture frame. It just seemed deserted like an old house that hadn’t been sold in a while. There were only five doors upstairs, the guest room, a bathroom, what seemed to be a closet, and two other mysterious rooms. Tim assumed that one of the mysterious rooms belonged to Brian. He figured that he could look around before disturbing his former friend. In actuality, he just didn’t feel comfortable confronting Brian again.

 

The kitchen was empty and so was the living room. The dining room had nothing to note except for a small mirror reminiscent of the one Tim had in his place. He shivered at the thought of those words again. He definitely didn’t want to face Brian again.

 

The basement was someplace he didn’t feel like going to. The attic probably wasn’t ideal either.

 

Why did he even want to see Brian anyways? If anything, he should want to lock the door and die slowly. Well, he can’t die anymore can he?

 

Still, Tim went back upstairs and knocked on one of the doors. There was no answer. He didn’t want to intrude, but just in case, he tried the door handle. Of course the door was locked.

 

Tim went to the other door and knocked. Again, there was nothing. He called out. “Brian?”

 

He went up and down stairs until he was sure that he was the only one there at the moment. He had time to kill with nothing to do except thinking. So he did just that.

 

In his temporary room, he thought about how insane this all was. He wondered what Jay was doing right now. After forming such a close bond, he couldn’t help but become extremely saddened by it. Who wouldn’t be?

 

Tim felt his stomach growling. Huh, so you can get hungry after death.

 

He went downstairs again and went to the refrigerator, opening it only to be hit with a strong smell of rotting and spoiled food. There were also a few containers with some sort of liquid. It was a dark gray almost black substance. Before Tim could investigate, he heard the back door open and shut.

 

Tim closed the fridge door and looked at the back door. Nobody was there. Brian knew better than to frighten Tim, and Tim knew that this wasn’t Brian. Carefully, Tim grabbed a knife from a knife block. He inched towards the counter in front of the back door.

 

Then the front door was unlocked, opened, closed, and locked again.

 

Tim turned around and saw Brian with his mask on. That was the quick second it took for a creature to lash out and attack Tim. Brian was quick to take action. He grabbed the knife Tim dropped and started swinging at the creature, landing some blows on it.

 

The thing that attacked Tim screeched and ran to the back door, breaking it, and escaped.

 

Brian dropped the knife and urgently started to move the the dining room table. Tim got up in a daze with a lot of blood falling from his back and stomach. It was a bit severe, but Tim helped Brian push the table to the back door and flipped it so it was standing on its side.

 

Without a moment of hesitation, Brian started dragging Tim to the front door. Then there was a moment of internal debating. Brian left Tim at the door and quickly ran upstairs.

 

The blood loss was very frightening indeed. Can you actually die again?

 

With that last thought, Tim fell unconscious.

 

. . .

 

He woke up with a mask on his face. Tim shot up and looked to his side. Brian was there, driving. Tim noticed the seatbelt on him and looked around the car. He had numerous of questions, but the pain wasn’t doing him so good. Soon there was the same field again.

 

“Let me just say that you can’t die. Alex tried killing himself numerous of times but all he got was a lot of pain, and eventual healing. In fact, he decapitated himself once. All it took was for Jay to attach the head back on the body and boom, it healed within two days.”

 

Tim blinked. “I see.”

 

“That thing that attacked you? I don’t exactly know what it was. Alex calls them the passionate sufferers. Their purpose here is to...you know what? Nevermind. All you need to know, is that we can’t kill them either, but we can immobilize them. They can’t grow their limbs back.”

 

“Do they feel pain?”

 

“They shriek when their limbs are removed. I assume that they feel just as much pain as us.”

 

“Right, um there are cars here?”

 

“I’m the only one with a car.”

 

“Why?”

 

Brian narrowed his eyes. “That’s nothing you should be concerned about. Anyways, we’re heading to a place that might help a bit.”

 

The car stopped at what seemed to be a convenience store. It was certainly odd.

 

“I know it’s weird, but trust me, this is better than nothing.”

 

Tim hissed when he got out of the car. This time he noticed that there was a hoody tied tightly around his stomach and back, stained red from the blood. He looked down, not feeling comfortable with being around Brian. The latter didn’t seem to care as they walked in.

 

The place seemed like a normal convenience store even if it was on a field. There were some food options. Brian went up to the counter. There was nobody there. Brian rung the bell several times impatiently. After a couple minutes, he went back to the car and got a plastic bag out. He comes back in and tosses it to Tim who takes the mask off.

 

“You’ll need it for the first couple of days. After that, you won’t be hungry anymore.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Your body would’ve adjusted to this place. You’re dead. The dead don’t need to eat.”

 

“I see, about my body...”

 

“It’s more of a spiritual body.” Brian put quotes on spiritual.

 

Tim nodded. Soon, out of nowhere, a young woman shows up. As young as she looked, something about her felt ancient.

 

“Eh, what are you staring at?”

 

Tim jumped. “Well I’m sorry, I just died and all. I’ve never seen you before.”

 

She shifted into an old man. “Of course you haven’t seen me before.”

 

Then that man shifted into a small boy. “I am someone in all of history from beginning to end.”

 

Tim couldn’t quite tell what was going on.

 

Brian stepped in. “I’ve had enough of your games! What took you so long?!”

 

Suddenly the thing changed into a darkness with three eyes. “You have no right to speak to me in such a way.”

 

The strange creature’s body was constantly changing, but all of the forms were ones with three eyes. None of them looked human. One of its arm swung down and held Brian. Eight, no nine fingers gripped his face and held him up. That one arm held Brian to the ceiling and revealed its sharp teeth.

 

“I am a patient one, but you waste my time. Unless you wish to be crushed, I expect you to conform to my rules. You are fortunate to even be in my presence in the first place. You are a special case simply because of your situation that I have no control over. That does not mean anything.”

 

Tim was frightened and staggered back. One of its eyes spotted him and started shifting back into a human form.

 

“Timothy Wright...nothing of interest to me.”

 

The store shook and everything was engulfed in flames. Tim started shaking. Not only was this just not normal, it also reminded him of all of the fire related trauma.

 

The world grew all too vibrant in a library of fire. The creature dropped Brian to the ground from fifty feet. Luckily for him, it was only a broken leg. Tim ran over to him. He didn’t know what to do as the monster grew to be bigger than a skyscraper. It’s coal black skin and shifting shapes scared Tim.

 

“You will not defy me. As you are now here, Timothy Wright, just know that you are not important in this world. What I am about to say is worth more than you have ever tried to be.”

 

There was both fear and anger as Tim started to stand up. He could hear static in his head until he fell.

 

“You may think of me as a creature, but that I am not. I am a being with more power than you could ever imagine. I have not finished your story thoroughly, but you will have a final fate.”

 

Everything disappeared except for the dark convenience store and a bag of bandages. Tim sat up with a headache. He looked at Brian who also got up. The other male was in obvious pain after having his leg broken.

 

“Brian, what just happened?”

 

He got the bandages and started panicking. Brian shoved Tim away and clenched his teeth in pain as he stood up.

 

“It’s going to heal in a few hours. Now just go to the car.”

 

“What?! No, you need to lie down. I’m not just going to-,”

 

“Just go to the car!”

 

Brian’s volume shocked Tim. The latter gave up on it as he just couldn’t process what was going on anymore.

 

“Also, make sure you wear your mask out there. Those things only attack humans. They don’t recognize anything that either doesn’t seem human or doesn’t look human. Masks are the best way to obscure their vision.”

 

Tim nodded and put on the mask. He left the building, hearing the annoying sound of the door chime.

 

While sitting in the car, he saw some inhuman creatures with long black teeth. Those must’ve been the passionate sufferers.

 

They made Tim feel unsettled. He scooted away from the window, looking back at the store. He heard a loud bang and some curses in there. Tim turned back to the window and saw a passionate sufferer staring at him through the window. It was maybe ten feet away, but it still scared him to see white sclera staring right at him. It was unmoving, and Tim didn’t remember Brian saying anything about moving when one spots you.

 

Another two hours pass and Brian was awfully quiet. Tim didn’t know if he wanted to check. Soon, he felt dizzy and slept. When he woke up, he saw the passionate sufferer right at the window. Tim almost screamed, but held himself back. The thing didn’t move, preferring to observe a little longer before hearing someone step out of the convenience store. Brian sees the passionate sufferer and throws a rock, causing it to run away.

 

There was another awkward silence as the two drove back to Brian’s place. When going inside, Brian gave Tim a knife to defend himself with. Noticeably, the back door seemed to be fixed. Brian told Tim to look upstairs while he checked the bottom floor.

 

For a moment, Brian was about to get out his keys, but then he went back to checking the place for one of the monsters.

 

“Tim, if I ever seem agitated, don’t approach me, because that’s not me.”

 

Before Tim could retort, Brian went to the basement. Tim sighed with discontent. He went upstairs and tried the rooms. Nothing was out of place when he checked. Nobody was in the closet either. He went to the other unlocked doors and checked carefully. There was no way any of those things could go through lock doors so he didn’t bother. The attic was the only place he didn’t check.

 

Tim called out for Brian, hearing no response. He went downstairs and saw the basement door opened. Tim called out again. No reply could be heard as he went down the stairs.

 

Each step he took was darker and more unsettling than the last. He smelled something potent coming from the basement.

 

Tim covered his nose with his hand. The scent grew stronger until it was almost unbearable. He then heard a screech.

 

“Brian!”

 

He heard some shifting around and out came Brian, with black on his hands and face.

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

“I was going to ask you about going into the attic.”

 

“The attic? I’ll check there later.”

 

“What’s that black stuff?”

 

“Blood from one of them. Don’t worry about it.”

 

They went back to the first floor. Tim turned to Brian. “I know you’re mad at me, but you’ve been acting so strangely! It’s nothing like before!”

 

Brian looked at Tim. “There are some things going on. Just don’t do anything stupid.”

 

Tim was about to argue, but Brian cut him off. “Look, I know you’re worried about this, but it will be over soon. I’ll explain some more things after I take a shower. You should clean your wounds in the other bathroom.”

 

After twenty minutes, both of them were at the dining room table after it was moved back.

 

“That thing we saw was the All Knowing Being. It’s essentially a god who knows everything in the past and present. It knows what the end is, but it can only speculate most of the future.”

 

“Then it’s not all knowing now.”

 

“The thing is, we aren’t ever set on one path. We have to choose where we go. Honestly, it knows all of the options and where they will end up. It knows the probability of us choosing certain answers but it has no control.”

 

“A god with no control?”

 

“It’s a god of knowledge. It only knows things. Honestly, I’m pretty sure that’s the most it has ever spoken. The All Knowing Being is never usually around, but when it is, it’s usually just static. It’s not on our side and it’s not our enemy. Purely neutral,”

 

Tim nodded, trying to follow along.

 

“There are at least three of these gods. At least that’s what Alex told me. There’s The Creator, The Controller, and The All Knowing Being. AKB for short,”

 

Brian noticed Tim becoming tired. “You should go to sleep now. There’s more to explain once you’re ready.”

 

Tim agreed and went to bed, much more frightened because of the knowledge he had.


	3. Another conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim wakes up to Brian cooking breakfast. Brian confesses to a few things and starts explaining more

Tim woke up, hearing the sound of cooking. He went down stairs and saw that Brian was at the stove, making some eggs.

 

“Oh, you’re awake? That’s good. You can sit down at the table.”

 

Tim sat down with plenty of things to ask. The first being, “Why are you happier today?”

 

Brian finished and put the scrambled eggs on two plates. “There’s no point in being mad after death. What happened happened and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

 

“You’re still mad though, right?”

 

Brian shrugged. “I’m not going to pretend to be completely okay, but I’m not exactly mad anymore.”

 

“Oh,”

 

The two started eating across from each other. The table seemed longer than it is. Time was slow.

 

“So, what about your special case?”

 

“Special case?”

 

Tim glared at Brian. “You’re keeping something from me. You have a car when nobody else does. That god called you a special case!”

 

Brian sighed. “I’ll answer that after establishing some things. I bended the truth a little bit. This is a room of categorizing by association. We’re here along with everyone who was affected by the Operator in our group. However, that does not mean that The Operator is necessarily connected here.”

 

“Why did you lie then?”

 

Brian stiffened up. “That’s not important.”

 

Tim stood up. “Not important? You lied to me, you hypocrite.”

 

“Look, just let it go.”

 

“No, Brian! You misinformed me. I want to hear why.”

 

“I wanted to make you stay with me out of fear, ok?”

 

Tim was trying to process this. “Why?”

 

“Tim, I’ll tell you later. The lie wouldn’t have worked anyways.”

 

“I want answers now.”

 

“You of all people should know that sometimes you just aren’t meant to find things out until later.”

 

Tim froze, remembering how Jay reacted to him hiding the tape.

 

“Fine, but you need to tell me.”

 

“I will,”

 

Tim sat back down. Brian was calmer and much lest hostile today.

 

“Tim, you’re going to have to stay here until the AKB finishes your story and judgement. Since a lot of people die, it has to take some time on it.”

 

“Doesn’t it know the story already?”

 

“Yeah, but it wants to be thorough.”

 

“Why?”

 

Brian looked away. “This place we’re at is like a purgatory. It’s a waiting room. When the AKB is ready, it will decide your fate.”

 

“Wait wait wait, there’s more to death? There are layers to death?”

 

Neither of them were feeling well.

 

“Sort of, because of my situation, I know a little bit about it. There are three final fates according to the AKB. The most well known are Heaven and Hell. It’s pretty self explanatory. The one that nobody really knew about was the Wandering.”

 

Tim blinked. “The wandering?”

 

“It’s less of a place and more of a mental state. When you aren’t so good and you aren’t so bad, you’re allowed to just wander around the universe endlessly. You can go wherever your want and find all of the answers. The AKB decides which of the fates you belong to.”

 

“If you’re a wanderer, can’t you just go to Heaven?”

 

“You won’t be able to belong there.”

 

Tim nodded before Brian spoke again.

 

“It decided that I was a wanderer. I can’t go yet because I need to sort out one problem.”

 

“What’s that?”

 

“I’ll tell you when it’s time.”

 

Tim didn’t like the fact that Brian was keeping secrets, but he knew that he was just the same. For now, he decided that not rebutting against someone who’s been dead for a longer time. After breakfast, Brian gave Tim a book.

 

“I can’t find Jay right now. He’s gone missing. All I know is that he’s safe. I’m going to check up on Alex.”

 

“Wait, let me come with you.”

 

Brian shook his head. “You killed him, right? I don’t know how he’s going to react to you.”

 

Tim gave up on trying and went back to his room. He heard the door unlock, open, close, and lock again.

 

He noticed how the paint on the wall of his room was starting to chip away. He crouched down to take a better look. There seemed to be something underneath the paint. Curious, Tim started scratching off more paint until he saw wallpaper. It had red floral designs. There seemed to be a rip in it that showed another wallpaper that was much more childish. Tim knew that Brian wasn’t into any of these things. It was obvious that he didn’t build the house, but what did?

 

Tim started tearing away the layers of wallpaper, showing many designs, obviously from other people. The further he got, the more worn out the designs were. He stopped when he saw a white one with dark red or brown splotches. It barely had a metallic scent and looked very old. Did Brian know of this? He would probably get angry if he knew Tim found this.

 

The man headed downstairs and looked around. He went to the fridge and opened it. The containers with dark liquid went missing as well. He saw the book Brian gave him and started reading.

 

None of the letters or numbers were understandable. They obviously seemed like some sort of code that hasn’t been diffused.

 

The first one was easy enough, as he had known how to break down Totheark’s codes.

 

They know. It watches. Beware of the one who watches for it is a foe.

 

Tim remembered what Brian said.

 

“Something’s watching us.”

 

Tim flipped the page. There were much harder puzzles to solve. The last page he got to was eighteen. Anything after that seems to be a language that he had never seen.

 

So far, these are the messages:

 

They know. It watches. Beware of the one who watches, for it is a foe.

 

Two are missing. Two are left.

 

Three are in power. One has to cower.

 

Inevitable ending

 

Delayed it can be.

 

Prevention is not possible.

 

Rebirth is the end.

 

The four shall exist forever.

 

This is a cycle.

 

We will be reborn.

 

We will be forgotten.

 

Each time we restart, only more pain will ensue.

 

When all know everything, the cycle will stop.

 

Each time is shorter. Please hurry.

 

Once the cycle is done we will stop suffering.

 

Each time we are too late, we start over.

 

Soon, the end will be the beginning.

 

Slow down so we can learn the truth.

 

Tim was trying to put this all together, but it was all jumbled up. He heard the door unlock, open, close, and lock.

 

Brian saw Tim reading with a bunch of papers. The former sitting down next to Tim. “I see you figured out all of the ones I figured out. Still trying to get in contact with the AKB so I can find out the rest, but it refuses to speak to me.”

 

Tim nodded. “Do you know what all of this means?”

 

“Not really, I’ve tried though.”

 

“I don’t think there are three gods. Four would be a much more possible answer. I have a feeling that this is on a bigger scale than we can imagine.”

 

“Four...yeah, that makes sense. What’s the last one then? We have a creator, knowledge, and control.”

 

Tim and Brian sat and thought about it until Tim read the first clue. “Foe...knowledge...control...create...”

 

Brian looked at him, waiting for Tim’s thought to finish.

 

“Destruction,”

 

Both of them were silent after that point. The atmosphere became much colder as Brian stood up. He scowled at the book.

 

“Destroyer? That could fit in the blank. Tim, we’re going to run an errand tomorrow. Be ready, because you need that mask. Make sure to be as quiet as you possibly can out there.”

 

They both agreed on it.

 

. . .

 

During the pitch black night, Tim could hear Brian’s anger fit. No, that wasn’t Brian.

 

He creeped downstairs, trying not to make a sound. The lights were on in the kitchen, and Brian was trying to cook with a little bit of struggle. It didn’t seem normal. Brian was angry and trying to calm himself down while cooking. He threw the pan to the ground.

 

The out of character actions were certainly a lot to take in.

 

Tim ducked when Brian looked at the stairs. After a second of silence, Tim could hear his companion sigh in disappointment and pick up the pan.

 

“If only I were just as human as before.”

 

Tim couldn’t sleep that entire night.


	4. Finding

Tim had given up on sleeping. He opened the door slightly to see if anyone was outside his room. Instead he heard someone walking upstairs. In the spur of the moment, Tim rushed back to bed and pretended to be asleep.

 

The door creaked open as he heard footsteps towards him. Tim closed his eyes, hoping for it to all be a fever dream.

 

“Heh, it’s been a while since you’ve slept this heavily.”

 

That was all the confirmation Tim needed, to know that it wasn’t just a stupid dream. He heard the door close shut.

 

. . .

 

That morning, the gray room seemed a lot bleaker than usual. Tim noticed that the wallpaper was back to normal. He headed downstairs and saw that nothing was really out of place. Brian clearly cleaned up the mess from last night, but Tim could see a tiny marking on the floor.

 

Death was an oddly calm experience sometimes.

 

Then, he heard a yawn. Brian was walking towards Tim with purpose.

 

“Today, we’re going to find your house.”

 

“My, house?”

 

“By now, your own house would’ve manifested somewhere. We’re going on a search for it. Unfortunately, we’re going to need to do this on foot. I don’t want to direct any attention to our location.”

 

“Alright, I’m still trying to get used to death.”

 

“Hm,”

 

Tim looked at his mask at the table. It wasn’t something he wanted to remember, especially not after death.

 

“I thought I threw it away.”

 

“I made that one, since it’s easier to recognize you with a design I’m familiar with.”

 

Tim glared at Brian. He picked up the mask and handed it to Brian. “I don’t want to see it ever again. What normal person would bring something like that up?”

 

Brian didn’t even have anger in his eyes. “It’s not a normal world anymore, Tim. You’re just going to have to deal with it.”

 

“No, I have dealt with many problems my entire life! I’m being haunted by this thing after death! Do you not know how that feels?!”

 

This triggered a reaction. Brian grabbed Tim’s shoulders and shoved him to a wall.

 

“After a week, you’ll understand why I don’t think about small things like that. I don’t know how to feel.”

 

Tim elbowed him to the side and took the mask. “Fine, since you’re the expert here, lead the way.”

 

They both cooled off after a few minutes. Brian looked at Tim. “Sorry, let’s just get going.”

 

Someone started pounding on the door. There was shouting outside. Brian gave Tim the look of, “stay behind me,”

 

The pounding got louder and louder. Brian grabbed a knife and unlocked the door slowly. He then opened it quickly while pointing the knife at the intruder.

 

It turned out to be Jay. Brian relaxed his position.

 

“Look, I don’t know how to say this, but I found something out.”

 

Tim walked towards the two. Jay saw him and grinned. “Hey, Tim, glad to see you again!”

 

“Same here,”

 

“Well, I need to show you something. It’s not good at all. You guys need to relocate.”

 

The atmosphere got very serious. Relocation was hard when the enemy could track you down at any time. They were always going to be watched no matter where they were.

 

Brian gritted his teeth. “Why do we have to relocate?”

 

“The damage is getting closer to the house.”

 

Brian looked outside the back door. Jay was right, everything was starting to chip away into a bleak, white, nothingness.

 

Now Tim knew why everything seemed bland.

 

Brian sighed and put on his mask.

 

The trio headed out to the car and started driving away.

 

. . .

 

Three hours passed by. Jay and Tim were trying to have a light conversation, but with the situation looming over them, it was a bit hard. Jay then spoke about the afterlife.

 

“A lot of us have changed after death. Alex isn’t under the influence of that thing anymore. He’s trying his hardest to redeem himself. Seth and Sarah were sorted out to be wanderers. Sarah was relatively scared, but Seth didn’t seem at all surprised about the events, in fact I’m pretty sure he lost all of his emotions.”

 

Tim was taking all of this in while Brian drove. The latter was seemingly annoyed about the conversation. He glared at Jay from the rear view mirror when he mentioned changes.

 

“After death, you might’ve noticed that we still eat food until a couple days later. That’s because you’re adjusting to being dead. In a way, it’s the same with emotions. You never really lose them, but it does numb a bit. Stronger emotions in life are more likely to be prominent when the other emotions start to subside.”

 

Tim looked at Brian who seemed more focused on the road.

 

Jay continued. “Because of that, some people might act without thinking much. It’s interesting really.”

 

Brian stopped the car so suddenly, all three of them fell forward.

 

“We’re here now. Tim, stay behind us. We don’t know how Alex will act.”

 

Jay rolled his eyes. “Tim can take care of himself.”

 

Brian shrugged. “I’d prefer to keep it as civil as possible.”

 

Jay sighed. “I guess you’re right.”

 

They heard some movement within the trees and bushes. Tim made sure to leave the mask as Brian put on his mask. Jay pulled out a skull mask.

 

Brian knocked on the door. It opened upon impact. They noticed that the place was trashed and another man in a mask was trying to fight off a few passionate sufferers. With that, the trio decided to help immobilize them.

 

Tim held one down as it tried grabbing at his face. Another bigger one was about to attack from behind, but Brian intercepted and decapitated it. The head screeched while its body scrambled to attack and get ahold of the head.

 

Tim saw the black blood as Brian slashed away like a madman. After he was done, Brian looked back at Tim with a cold expression.

 

“Don’t leave yourself open.”

 

He cut the head and limbs off of the one Tim was holding down.

 

Another one opted to attack them. Fortunately enough, Tim caught the movement and sliced through its stomach. Black blood started splattering everywhere as the creature squealed in pain. 

 

Tim looked at it with a horrified expression before cutting the limbs.

 

Soon, all of the passionate sufferers were dismembered. Jay was about to gather the arms and legs but the other masked man stopped him.

 

“What is it, Alex?”

 

“We don’t want to put the limbs together. They’ve learned to make do with that.”

 

Brian lurched forward. “You’re kidding! Now I know my house is going to be torn apart.”

 

Alex growled. “How was I supposed to know that it was going to happen?!”

 

“You wanted to kill me. How do I know that you wouldn’t want to try again.”

 

“You can’t even die again!”

 

Jay got in between them. “It doesn’t matter right now. We came to warn you that the destruction is rapid.”

 

“Jay, we might need to stay at your place.” Alex said.

 

“No! I’m not going to-,” before Jay could say anything else, Alex cut him off.

 

“Look, Brian’s place and my place aren’t safe.”

 

He then looked at Tim. “He doesn’t even have one yet. Where are we supposed to go now?”

 

Jay gave in. “Fine. No cars are coming though.”

 

Brian nodded. “I know where your house is so I’ll be there after a bit.”

 

“Aren’t you coming?”

 

Alex didn’t stop staring at Tim which was uncomfortable.

 

Brian and Jay talked in the background as Alex came up to Tim. The shorter of the two looked away, “I don’t regret killing you.”

 

“I don’t even blame you for killing me at this point. I was controlled by the Operator. Not to mention, you were right about the fact that even if I had killed you, there were way more victims than I thought.”

 

Tim didn’t expect such an apology to come out of Alex. He had to confess that he still felt guilt for bringing the Operator to the group in the first place.

 

“You know, I’m sorry for getting you caught up with it.”

 

Alex sighed. “Can’t do anything to change that now.”

 

Tim nodded. After Jay was done, Brian headed over to Tim. “We’re going to look for your house. If we don’t find it within the first hour then we’ll go to Jay’s place.”

 

Alex blinked. “I can come along.”

 

For some reason, Brian reacted with aggression. “No, you will not. You might not have any ill intent, but it would be much nicer if Tim doesn’t get paranoid because of you.”

 

Tim finally had enough. “Brian! Let’s just go and get this over with. Just stop arguing with everyone and we’ll get going.”

 

This seemed to get the point across. “Fine,”


	5. Partnership

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim and Brian talk it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I won’t be updating as much as before. I’d like to say that this story will head in a completely different direction. It’s not going to feel at all like Marble Hornets because this story will have a different atmosphere, and different problems. You might be wondering where the Operator comes in.
> 
> You’ll just have to wait and see. :)

The sound of crunching leaves was the only thing they heard. Brian led the way through the forest as Tim took looks around to make sure no passionate sufferers were near them. It felt like a long thirty minutes just got longer. 

 

“So, why is everything falling apart here?”, Tim asked.

 

Brian looked at him while walking. “Something bad is going to happen. I don’t know what, but it has to do with those riddles. Think about it. Inevitable end and each time we are too late we start over. Doesn’t that sound like whoever wrote it doesn’t want it to happen? It could mean the end of the world.”

 

They kept walking. “I guess it does. Brian, I think you know the answer to this. Where is Amy?

 

“What?”

 

“I know that Sarah and Seth are wanderers now, but what about Amy?”

 

Brian paused. “Wanderer. They’re all wanderers.”

 

He took a piece of paper out of his pocket.

 

“Don’t worry about us. We’ll always be with you. Seth”

 

“The thing about wanderers is that they can’t interact with anything except each other. They can go to their living family but they wouldn’t communicate or touch anything. On rare occasions they can haunt a place but that’s a bit of a weird thing.”

 

Tim walked on. “Does that mean they could be here right now?”

 

“Yeah definitely,”

 

Another thirty minutes passed and Brian started turning to go back. “We’ll have to find it tomorrow.”

 

Tim nodded. “Alright,”

 

. . .

 

When they got to Jay’s place, Tim realized how similar it was to Brian’s. Why are all of these houses in the woods? It was odd.

 

Once inside, Jay explained some things.

 

“There’s only one guest room, and I don’t know if I want people in my room. Alex and I have agreed that since some of us just aren’t comfortable with each other, say Alex and...everyone else, we’ve decided that you and Brian can share the guest room, while Alex is sleeping on the couch.”

 

Tim saw Alex’s face of discontent. Something told him that the sleeping arrangements didn’t make everyone happy.

 

That night, Tim and Brian slept on opposite sides of the bed. It was definitely uncomfortable but much better than nothing. After a couple of hours, Tim started tossing and turning, trying to get some sleep.

 

Brian sighed. “Can’t sleep?”

 

“Not even a wink,”

 

“I wouldn’t be able to either.”

 

Tim sat up. He didn’t feel like lying down next to Brian at the moment. The awkward tension between them was gradually getting worse and worse as time goes on. Brian seemed to sense this, as he too got up.

 

“Look, Tim, I’m going to be honest with you. You probably know what I’m going to say now.”

 

“What?”

 

“Jay’s right about the emotion problem. After about a week or so, I lost a lot of my emotions a while ago. The only one I strongly feel is anger. I keep getting mad over the tiniest things. I can’t help but get these angry outbursts.”

 

Tim expected this conversation to come up but didn’t think it would be now.

 

“I get it. When I was alive, it was easy to make me angry or aggravated. I can understand how you feel.”

 

Brian nodded. “I guess,”

 

Another moment of silence passed by. The night seemed to never end. What was a minute of sitting in silence felt like an hour.

 

Brian spoke again. “The time always changes. Sometimes, night can be for a few seconds while day lasts a couple of weeks. It can be the other way around too.

 

Tim knew his old friend was trying to change the subject. He didn’t want to let it slide. Things were not ok between them right now, and he didn’t want to leave it at that.

 

“Brian, stop ignoring the issue. We can’t do anything if we’re just going to be wary of each other. You’re keeping things from me and I don’t think avoiding the problem is going to help. This entire time, I’ve been wondering what I’m supposed to do here? Why do I have to be afraid?” He knew that this might cause an argument, but there weren’t any other good opportunities.

 

The blonde sighed. “If you’re right, than this means that a god of destruction could be lurking around and watching us. We’re obviously running out of time. This problem is bigger than anything we can imagine. I want to stop it somehow. It’s just too big for me to handle, but I need to figure this out.”

 

“Why can’t the AKB fix this?”

 

“It can’t control anything! It can’t do anything.”

 

Tim rubbed his eyes. “Destruction of the world? That’s insane, but I can’t just not believe it.”

 

Brian chuckled. “That’s what I thought. The destroyer is obviously going to tear everything apart, starting with the waiting room.”

 

“You mean...this place?”

 

“That’s right, but guess what? I’m trapped here. I can’t get out of this place.”

 

Tim could hear Brian’s hopeless laughter. “Hey, we’ll get through this somehow.”

 

He wasn’t good at support. Tim was the abrasive type, but he couldn’t let that determine how the conversation would end. He worked up the courage to say, “I promise, I’ll help get you out of this.”

 

Brian looked at him with shock. “You’re kidding. You have just as much control over this as I do.”

 

Tim scoffed. “You’re right about that, but I was the one who pulled you into my problems. I want to get you out of yours. After all, a lot of this started with me.”

 

Tim turned to Brian. He didn’t like being sentimental, but there was no time to be thinking about that. He held out his hand.

 

Brian took it.


	6. Code

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m happy to see comments here! Any feedback is nice, whether it’s criticism, or compliments. It’s nice to see that the Marble Hornets fandom sort of exists here!

In the morning, Tim had awoken to the sound of shouting from downstairs. Brian wasn’t in the room, so he assumed that the blonde was also on the first floor.

 

He got up and went to the bathroom. Strangely enough, Brian didn’t regularly go to the restroom, probably because he’s been dead for a longer time. Admittedly, Tim didn’t need to use the restroom either. He just needed to wash his face.

 

After cleaning up, the noises got louder. Static started filling his head. It felt so familiar to him. It was a lot like something when he was alive. Something he had heard throughout his life was buzzing through his mind.

 

Tim wanted to escape the past, so he just ignored the noise. He went downstairs, only to find another argument broke out between Brian, Jay, and Alex.

 

“You guys are the ones who can’t let go!” Alex shouted.

 

Jay held his hands out. “Alex, we don’t need to fight like this right now. What if Tim wakes up?”

 

“Let him wake up! He needs to know about your manipulation anyways.”

 

Brian was the one to retort this time. “Manipulation?! I’m not manipulating him.”

 

Jay glared at him. “You have and you’ve done it even after he died. Stop trying to scare Tim into staying here! Not to mention you literally gave him a seizure.”

 

“That was your fault.”

 

Tim gritted his teeth.

 

“What if the AKB decides his fate then? You’ll make sure he stays and suffers with you.” Jay spat.

 

Brian took a step towards Jay. “Do you really think I’m that bad? Do you really think that I would do that to him? I had to get him back to help me. It was necessary.”

 

“You’re still manipulating him to do what you want!”

 

“Look, if things get too out of hand, I’ll leave him with you. It’s not like he’ll sit by, but it’s better than leaving him with a psychopath.”

 

Alex growled. “I’m not a psychopath!”

 

Tim finally got involved with the conversation. “Can you guys just shut up? I don’t care what this argument is about, just shut up for a minute.”

 

Everyone went silent. There was some air in the room now that nobody was attacking each other.

 

Tim was the one who broke the tense silence. “Care to explain what’s going on here?”

 

Brian calmly left. He went to the front door, and left Jay’s house.

 

Unlock.

Open.

Close.

Lock.

 

Alex sat down at the couch, muttering to himself. Jay was obviously stressed out about what was happening. He knew he had to tell Tim.

 

“We just can’t trust each other. I know you and Brian have been good friends, but he’s not doing so well right now. His mental state is terrible because of Hoodie.”

 

Tim blinked. “Hoodie?”

 

“In life, Brian became the shell of the person he once was. It’s affecting him, even now. Between you and me, I think that Brian is losing control of himself.”

 

“He’s right though. I won’t be sitting by if things are getting worse.”

 

With that, they all sat down and stopped talking. Brian came back thirty minutes later, only to find that Alex and Jay were having an intense glaring contest, and Tim was studying the book. When the latter saw Brian, he spoke up. “Where did you get this book?”

 

Brian looked at the other two before going back to Tim. “I found it in the convenience store. It was just sitting on a shelf. I figured out eighteen like you did. The other stuff looks like a completely different language. I’m even betting that it is a different language. This just seems odd.”

 

‘Did you try asking the AKB?”

 

“The AKB is always busy. It doesn’t have time to answer my questions.”

 

“We’ll just have to make do with what we have.”

 

Brian nods. They start flipping through the pages until they saw the Operator symbol. It must be a coincidence. The Operator symbol had existed for a long time, right? On the next page was a scribble of the familiar, tall, and slender creature. What would that thing have to do with any of this? They had to wonder who wrote this. 

 

Throughout the day, all they could do was get a bulletin board, and start pinning some theories and ideas up.

 

“Destruction...cycle,”

 

Brian saw that on each page, there were a set of numbers. He instructed Tim to write down each set on another piece of paper.

 

01000110 01101001 01101110 01100100 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110100 01110010 01101111 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100011 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110

 

Tim nodded to this. “Seems like a simple binary code.”

 

They didn’t even sleep that night. Alex got to sleep in the guest room because Tim and Brian were occupying the living room.

 

. . .

 

Jay walked downstairs in the morning to drink some water. He then stopped dead on his tracks. Tim had fallen asleep just as he was writing something. Brian dropped a blanket around his partner and continued to investigate.

 

“You seem to be getting somewhere.” Jay yawned.

 

“We’ve been trying to figure some of these things out. I just hope the answer comes soon. Tim just fell asleep a few minutes ago. He’s been working pretty hard.”

 

Jay smiled. Brian was relaxed and cooperative. It could be because of how tired the blonde was, but Jay saw that Brian had a soft spot at times, even when he was mad.

 

“What’s our next step?”

 

“Finding the Controller,”


	7. Implications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brian and Tim start investigating. Strange things happen and Tim learns something new.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a little bit more mature. I haven’t outright said it, but there are some mature implications.

Neither of them wanted to walk alone in the woods. Brian was scouting around for some clues. Anything he found would go into the backpack he was carrying. They started with the convenience store. That wasn’t at all helpful since nothing useful was found, and the AKB wasn’t even there.

 

Tim on the other hand, was making sure nothing was following or going to attack. Under the mask, he felt different. It wasn’t ever a comfortable different.

 

They stopped at Brian’s house. Just as they expected, the building was crumbling apart. It dissipated in the white nothingness approaching them. That white nothingness was their world, the waiting room, being destroyed. As more of the ground and sky started to chip away, Tim and Brian decided to head back.

 

Static started filling Tim’s head again. It gave him a migraine of sorts. A sharp and sudden pain caused him to stop and double over. He started coughing without any stop, giving him no time in between to breathe. He took off his mask to allow air into his lungs. It got worse when he coughed up blood and started to vomit. He was so busy going through the tidal wave of sickness, he didn’t notice that Brian started coughing as well.

 

The coughing fit ended with Tim gulping air, and Brian barely standing up. After a few minutes of pausing, they finally recovered from it.

 

While Brian did cough up blood, Tim was the only one who vomited. Something strange was going on, and it didn’t look any good. Both of them were out in the open with masks off.

 

A passionate sufferer was watching them intently. Another one was around the corner, eying them. Brian immediately put his mask on, and got into a defensive position. Tim did the same as both of the passionate sufferers ran to attack them.

 

The two pulled out pocket knives and initiated the fight. With each swing, from them, there was a squeal from the passionate sufferer. With each hit from the creatures, there was a grunt from the two men.

 

After a while of knife fighting, they succeeded in burying the limbs, torso, and head far away from each other. The two were left panting. They opted to go back to Jay’s place to rest.

 

On their way, another passionate sufferer encountered them. This time, Brian stood still. Tim followed in suit, not knowing what was going on. The monster crept closer to them, tongue hanging out.

 

Somehow, this one seemed different. It was only a foot shorter than Tim which was an average height for passionate sufferers. It leaned towards both of them, ears opened as if checking for breathing.

 

Its fingers were slimy, and whiter than the rest of it. Something about it was different from the others.

 

Brian looked carefully at the humanoid creature’s gray body and spotted it. The blonde knew that this was a bad situation, but what was even worse, was what the passionate sufferer was going to do.

 

With quick action, Brian told Tim, “Run,”

 

They started sprinting away from the creature. After a bit, they stopped at a house. It was similar to Brian’s and Jay’s, but it definitely wasn’t either of theirs. It wasn’t Alex’s either. Brian opened the door with ease and saw furniture inside.

 

“Tim, this is your new house.”

 

The brunette looked inside. “Should we stay here for the night?”

 

“The others will worry, but yeah.”

 

. . .

 

The quiet evening wasn’t at all tense like the first few nights. Tim was pouring out some tea to calm down while Brian rested on the couch.

 

It was the blonde who spoke. “Under normal circumstances, we’d just stay still until they run away. Any passionate sufferers with a heart on their back is a different kind of dangerous. If they see you, they won’t care about whether you’re human or not.”

 

“Why’s that?”

 

“Have you lost your virginity yet?”

 

Tim choked on his saliva. “Where did that come from?!”

 

“Those types of passionate sufferers prefer virgins, but they don’t discriminate. They’ll make sure you’ll wake up full of pain down there.”

 

Tim blinked. “You’re...kidding, right?”

 

“Unfortunately, not. I’ve seen plenty of them but I’m not a victim of their schemes.”

 

“How do you know, then?”

 

“After I died, I saw a note in the convenience store. Apparently, it was Seth. He wrote to me what he knew about this world. Sarah was almost a victim to those things, but luckily, she’s fine.”

 

“Wow…”

 

“There is another type of passionate sufferers that are much rarer. They have diamonds on their back. Seth said that those can be harmless, but can also attack before stealing your things. They’re basically thieves.”

 

“Doesn’t that sound weird to you?”

 

“Yeah, it does. Something’s a bit off about passionate sufferers. I suspect that the book has something to do with it.”

 

Brian took it out of his backpack and flipped through the pages until he found the one he was looking for. They didn’t understand the words, but the illustration was enough to clue them in on something strange.

 

It showed people burning under the dirt. Some were pushed to the very bottom, turning into a deformed being that resembled a passionate sufferer.

 

“I have a suspicion that passionate sufferers are people pushed out from hell because there wasn’t enough room. That would explain some of their tendencies,” Brian shrugged.

 

This was an interesting theory. It was possible, and the book even hints at it.

 

Night time fell onto them, and they decided to sleep before heading out the next morning.


	8. Distrust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m honestly scared to post this chapter. While I do want to stick to the original vibe of Marble Hornets, I also want to stray from it. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

As expected, Jay was mad at them for making him worry. Even if they couldn’t die again, bad things could’ve happened. It didn’t take long to explain what happened. 

 

Tim was awfully tired for some reason. He didn’t know why, but he felt sick and unwell. Brian didn’t look any better, being irritated with Jay and Alex. Still, they felt better than before. 

 

. . .

 

Brian had grown distant again. His dark eyes peered at all of their research. Tim offered to take over, saying Brian wasn’t himself. The other male refused. It was very frustrating to see that Brian was just ignoring his concerns.

 

Tim eventually just joined the investigation to the best of his abilities, going to scout the woods every now and then.

 

Soon, they both moved out of Jay’s place, and went to Tim’s home. This gave some much needed space.

 

It wasn’t hard for Brian to start noticing some patterns within this other language. There was a symbol that was used in a lot of sentences on each page. If he remembered correctly, the letter e was the most frequently used letter in the English alphabet. Even though there were many variables, he thought that he could give this a shot.

 

Tim joined in as soon as he saw Brian writing on the pages of the book. 

 

“This isn’t a language. It must be a custom made code.” Tim muttered.

 

“You’re right. It has to be a code. If it were another language, the letters would be completely random.”

 

They tried out some messages and started finding out some words like “the”.

 

It took hours for both of them to finally unscramble the messages of the pages completely. The book was very thin and held thirty five pages. Eighteen were riddles. Eleven of them were illustrations of the Operator. That left six pages to read.

 

“There is no more room in the punishment land. Those who are the oldest have been deformed in many ways, and pushed out of the overflowing land. They are beginning to destroy mindlessly before their god arises.”

 

“Chaos is from the loss of control. Where is our control? Why is it in the dirt? Let us have our salvation.”

 

“The creations must seek our gods, for they are missing.”

 

“Destruction won again and again all because nobody could bring control back.”

 

“Create more room. Where are you, my dear god?”

 

“Summon our salvation. Create our salvation. Destruction needs no face.”

 

Whoever wrote it was trying to warn and inform someone. Brian and Tim glanced at each other. This was not at all good, was it?

 

The keywords, creation, chaos, destruction, and salvation were ringing.

 

As Brian expected, the passionate sufferers were once humans.

 

Tim went to bed after a bit. He was awfully tired.

 

. . .

 

It was hard to sleep. Brian was downstairs, making plenty of noises despite his quieter nature. Tim wanted to help him, but is the other manipulating him? Trust was awfully hard to find.

 

Curled up on the bed, he thought of what Brian had been doing while he was alive. When looking at the facts, Brian was definitely manipulating him. Mixed feelings came when the sudden feeling of dread overwhelmed him. He felt that Brian was in control and taking advantage of him in the afterlife.

 

Speaking of afterlife, how did he die? Tim had no memory of what made him feel terrible.

 

He heard a knock on the door. Tim opened it to see Brian’s messy hair.

 

“Tim, we need to get going now. Two are missing, and two are left. We know that the AKB is here, but we don’t know about the others.”

 

There it goes again. Tim was being dragged along. He felt stupid today.

 

It was a greyscale dawn for them. Brian was pacing back and forth in the convenience store, waiting for the god to respond.

 

Slowly, the setting started to disintegrate as the library Tim saw last time, started to form. It wasn’t up in flames this time, thankfully. He heard the sound of trickling water coming from a fountain in the middle of the cylindrical room.

 

A soothing voice echoed throughout the library. “I see what you wish for. Answers you shall get indeed.”

 

Brian scoffed. “You’re in a better mood than usual.”

 

A being stood above them, being almost as tall as the library itself. The god’s body was covered by layers of paper. It’s many arms were in the air, with things on hand. Quite a few hands held papers and books, while others had pens. The head of the AKB was a mere triangle with a circular glow behind it. Three eyes stared directly at Tim and Brian.

 

“You two are bound together, aren’t you? Well then, I see you have some questions. I do not wish to answer, but I know that I must. It’s unfortunate that a god can’t do anything, but I suppose I can trust the creations of the Creator. Well, maybe not, but I have no other choice.”

 

Tim felt static in his head. It was similar to what had happened before. Just like with the Operator.

 

“The Operator? That’s what you call it? How amusing. The static you hear is from being around me. You creations cannot quite handle our auras to well, but it won’t kill you. After all, you are dead. Live ones would join you if they witnessed me. That is why we never appear in person in front of your kind.”

 

Even without a mouth, the AKB did talk a lot.

 

“When one holds knowledge, all it wants is to share knowledge.”

 

Tim was almost afraid of the fact that the AKB basically read his mind. Brian stepped forward. “What’s with your mood today? This isn’t what you usually look like..”

 

“Now that you are to deep into the mystery, I believe I can have you help me.”

 

The two sat in silence.

 

“I do not wish to explain everything, but as you know, there is destruction eating away at your waiting room. The person who wrote the book is a dear creation we will protect. The Controller and Creator have been...sealed away. The ones you call passionate sufferers are too many. I have no power to bring either of them back. You will have to fetch them for me.”

 

They felt insulted. Tim was about to protest, but the AKB interrupted. “You shall not defy me, you puny insect. I do not care if you are creations. I will not tolerate any arguing.”

 

Tim felt small. The power in the static felt terrible.

 

The god in front of them shifted into a hideous monster. Dark charcoal hands pointed at them while a mouth formed underneath the thousands of eyes that peered on. The layers of paper were stained by ink. Fire erupted all around. The sound of water stopped.

 

“You shall do my bidding.”

 

The room returned to normal. No more amber shades were on the walls. Nothing was destroyed, but the heat felt too real to be an illusion.

 

The AKB was back to the other form, looking down on them with its three eyes.

 

Brian sighed. “What are we going to do?”

 

The AKB closed its eyes. “Summon the Creator. Find the Controller.”

 

Tim still wanted to say something about the insane plans. “I thought I was going to be at peace after I died. This is the complete opposite of what I want.”

 

“It doesn’t matter what we want now. We can’t stop.”

 

Two of the AKB’s hands reached out and held Tim and Brian. The AKB whispered, “You have one month, vivi.”


	9. Alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here they are, alive.

Tim woke up in a daze. He gasped and sat up in a strange bed. What was happening? He felt the uncomfortable sweat drop down his face. Where was this? What was going on?

 

“James Windles...James Windles! Are you awake?”

 

Tim blinked. “James...Windles…”

 

“Oh, he’s awake. Thank goodness,”

 

The room seemed to belong in a hospital. Above him was a nurse. Tim has had enough of hospitals for a last time.

 

“Do you remember your name?”

 

Tim didn’t know what to say. They were referring to him when they were saying James Windles, right?

 

“James...Windles,” His voice was hoarse.

 

Another doctor nodded. “Good, it seems that since you have no family, you’ll probably stay here for a bit. It seems you’ve been found out in the road along with another person by some of our local residents.” 

 

Tim took all of this in. His dismay had grown due to the fact that he was forced into this position. Sure he had gone pretty deep in an investigation he didn’t need to do, but how was he supposed to know that he had to come back to life? Tim despised this situation with all of his being. He didn’t want to be here.

 

“Do you know a Paul Underidge?”

 

“Paul Underidge?”

 

“He was the man they found with you. He’s in another room right now. Do you remember what happened?”

 

“No, not at all,”

 

It took a few minutes of interrogation for Tim to get rest. There were minimal injuries, luckily. He was going to be discharged tomorrow. The nurse helped him stand up when he requested to see Paul.

 

. . .

 

Tim frowned at the blonde in bed. Brian or Paul was sulking quietly.

 

“That arrogant god gave us completely different identities. We might have to find a motel to sleep in for the month.” Brian muttered.

 

Tim nodded. “So Bri-Paul, what’s our next move.”

 

“The AKB just sent us here without any instructions.”

 

Tim could tell that Brian was beyond irritated. The latter tossed a notebook to Tim.

 

. . .

 

They slept at a motel when they were released from the hospital. It was hard for Brian to eat since he’s been dead for a longer time. They didn’t know what to do now. Their time limit was unreasonable with nothing to go off of.

 

Brian was about to kick something until they heard a knock on the door.

 

Tim picked up a pencil and looked through the peephole. He saw a very familiar face on the other side. The brunette opened the door and let her in.

 

“Jessica, what are you doing here? How did you even know that we were here?”

 

Brian looked away. He went to the restroom and shut the door. Jessica was wide eyed in front of Tim. She even began tearing up.

 

“I thought you died.”

 

“You knew about that?”

 

“Of course I did! It was on the news.” She had disbelief in her eyes. “How are you alive?”

 

Tim didn’t know what to say. “How did I die?”

 

Jessica laughed as if he were joking, but she soon stopped when she saw that he was being serious. “You...don’t know? They said that you committed suicide in a motel room. In fact, this looks just like the one you shot yourself in.”

 

“Look, Jessica, it’s hard to explain. A lot of things have been going on. I’m alive now, and that’s all that matters.”

 

“How?”

 

Tim looked to the side. He made sure that the motel door was locked. After that was done, he sat her down. “It’s going to sound insane, but I have one month alive. A god of sorts resurrected me to find and summon two more.”

 

“That sounds...interesting.”

 

“I know, it’s weird. Trust me when I say that it’s for our own good.” He paused. “Still, how did you find us?”

 

Jessica blinked. “I had an awful dream. You and another guy were in it, talking to this tall thing. I just woke up in my car in front of this place. It was so odd. Then, I saw that other guy in my dream go into the motel room. I decided to follow him in, and for the last few minutes, I’ve been wondering what I should do.”

 

“Sounds a lot like what I go through. Did you take the pills like I told you?”

 

“I do, but last week I stopped because I was feeling much better.”

 

“Are you blacking out sometimes?”

 

“I guess, why?”

 

“Maybe you should keep taking those pills. It’s not good if you’re blacking out.”

 

“I guess you do have a point.” Jessica sighed. “I need to talk to you about something.”

 

“What?”

 

She hesitates before getting an ancient looking book from her bag. “I think that something big is going to happen soon.”

 

Before she could say anymore, there was a crash through a window. Brian came out of the bathroom, wondering what the sound was. All of their eyes widened when they saw what was in front of them.

 

A passionate sufferer with a heart on its back stared at them.


	10. Book

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things may be going downhill.

The monster in front of them posed a threat, especially considering Jessica didn’t know what they were. Brian instantly took the nearest thing he could, and started attacking. He looked at Tim and Jessica.

 

“Run!”

 

Tim immediately pulled Jessica by the hand to the door. His mind was filled with many thoughts. They were currently muddled up due to running. Jessica was breathy as she asked, “What was that?!”

 

“They’re just demented people from hell.”

 

“What?!”

 

“I’ll explain later! We just need to get to a safe place. We’re in a bad situation.”

 

“What about the other guy? We kind of left him behind.”

 

Tim stopped once they were near the antique store. He was starting to get worried about Brian, even calling him a few times. After a couple hours of hanging around, Tim decided to go back. He made sure to drop Jessica off at her home where her new roommate took care of her before heading to the motel.

 

He walked up to the parking lot and saw quite a bit of damage done. The door was knocked down, and there was blood. The cops were holding down a passionate sufferer as it tried to get free from restraint. Brian was nowhere to be seen, and that made Tim think for the worst.

 

Then, he felt a hand on his mouth. Tim was about to fight, but then he heard a murmur.

 

“It’s me. Come on, we better go.”

 

Brian pulled him into the bushes. His hand still on top of Tim’s mouth. They snuck past the cops and to a nearby fast food place. They ordered a meal and sat down.

 

“Where’s Jessica?”

 

“I left her with her roommate.”

 

“Good, I suppose. Do you have her number?”

 

“Yeah,”

 

“Good, she may be our first lead.”

 

Brian held out Jessica’s book. He flipped to the page that spoke about destroying seals. He went to another page displaying a picture of the All Knowing Being.

 

Tim’s eyes widened as he turned to the first page. On there, it said the author’s name was Ashlyn Villian. 

 

This was quite a surprise, seeing a name attached to something like this. They had no computers and very little money. It was a bit hard to get ahold of a computer. However, with Jessica’s help, maybe they could find and talk to Ashlyn Villian.

 

With that, Tim called Jessica. This was their best bet at getting clues.

 

. . .

 

Jessica met them at the same fast food place the next day. She saw how Brian and Tim were very dirtied and looking unwell. They had to go back to their motel and explain what happened.

 

The girl pulled out a laptop and pulled up what she found about Ashlyn Villian. The woman shown was young and petite. She lived in another state, a little bit further from Alabama. Like the AKB when Tim first met it, Ashlyn’s eyes showed ancient knowledge.

 

Brian seemed frustrated. “Great, how are we going to get there without a plane?”

 

“We could drive there, but it’s a bit longer. Thirteen hours isn’t too bad.” Jessica suggested. “I have a car we could drive in. Ten minute stops can help if the car runs out of fuel.”

 

Brian and Tim looked at each other. They both knew that it was the only way. 

 

After that discussion was done, Brian started explaining the passionate sufferers and their new identities. He was confused about why there was one where it didn’t belong. Tim was less tense now that they had a plan. He wasn’t entirely relaxed with his paranoid nature. 

 

The brunette looked around as Brian talked. He looked at the tv and widened his eyes.

 

“Bri-Paul!” Tim whispered loudly.

 

“What?”

 

The brunette pointed at the tv screen. Jessica and Brian looked at it and jolted up in shock.

 

There on the screen, were pictures of numerous passionate sufferers. The reporters were talking about how these have been popping up recently. The questionable humanoids kept appearing everywhere. They started talking about conspiracy theories involving government experiments and such, to which the president has been denying. They warned watchers to bring a weapon with them everywhere they went in case one of them popped out.

 

Tim’s knuckles were white from clenching his fists.

 

Was there anything worse than this?


	11. Road trip

The trip was fine. There wasn’t much to do. There weren’t many encounters with those monsters. If anything, it was the opposite. There weren’t any passionate sufferers heading their way. 

 

Brian was focusing on the road as he drove while Tim talked to Jessica in the passenger seat. The latter was in the back, talking about what’s been happening after Tim died.

 

“I found this book while looking for clues. My roommate has been affected by whatever’s going on.”

 

Tim nodded. “That’s not good.”

 

Brian stopped at a gas station. “We don’t know Ashlyn’s specific address, so what do we do?”

 

“We know that she’s in a small town. That should narrow down where she could be.”

 

“Only by a little.”

 

They started driving again, with only another hour to go. When they got to a bookstore parking lot, Brian got out of the car. He didn’t have any idea on what to do other than to ask a local. He left Jessica and Tim in the car as he went inside.

 

The cashier at the bookstore was a nice looking elderly woman. She smiled to Brian. “Hello there!”

 

The blonde put up a smile and walked up to her. “Hello, I was wondering if you knew of an author named Ashlyn Villian?”

 

“Oh, of course! She lives in this town.”

 

“Well, we happen to know a relative of hers and that he wants me to deliver something to her personally.”

 

“A relative?”

 

“Yes, her mother had known me for quite a bit now.”

 

The old woman was very suspicious and asked more questions. “Her mother…”

 

“Angie Villian,”

 

The old woman didn’t seem at all believing of the lie.

 

“Angie Villian was a nice woman who stayed with my family in Canada for a bit. She was really frail and all I want is to go to her daughter and tell her how much her mother loved her.”

 

The woman softened at the story. “Of course, I see now. How come her mother didn’t tell you where she lived?”

 

“They lost contact a long time ago. She didn’t know where Ashlyn went.”

 

The old woman went to go get a piece of paper, wrote some numbers down and gave it to him. “This is her number. I like to talk to her on Sundays but we never know what time is good for either of us.”

 

“Thank you,”

 

“Of course,”

 

. . .

 

Tim read the words carefully. “The destroyer is always watching. It is everywhere.”

 

Jessica shifted anxiously.

 

Brian was at the door of the bookstore, talking on the phone. This made Tim feel uneasy for some reason. When Brian hung up, he headed back towards the car.

 

The blonde immediately started up the car and started driving. Jessica was the first to act surprised. “Woah! Brian, what’s going on?”

 

“She knows. She knows we’re here. We need to get to her before something happens.”

 

“Who knows?”

 

“Ashlyn, she knows that we’re here.”

 

He was on the brink of speeding Tim did not like how things were turning out. “Brian, what’s going to happen?”

 

“I don’t know, but something will happen.”

 

Tim rolled his eyes. “Of course,”

 

It was another fifteen minutes to get to a small house. It seemed old and abandoned. They stepped out of the car and saw a woman through the window. She had dark and wavy hair, almost mirroring Jessica. That was Ashlyn Villian.

 

She stepped outside with a smile on her face. “I’ve been waiting.”

 

None of the others spoke until Tim finally asked, “How do you know about these things?”

 

He held the book in front of her. She chuckled. “Getting straight to the point, aren’t we?”

 

The woman led them inside. The living room was a mess of papers and ink. She sat them down on the couch and started explaining.

 

“I go by Ashlyn as you know. I used to go by Vivian, or Vivie for short, but I have lived too long to use those names.”

 

“Too long?” Jessica murmured.

 

The woman laughed. “I have lived for many years, ever since the beginning of mankind. At the time, I was naive, but I learned many things. The All Knowing Being loved to teach me. The Creator gave me many gifts after creating me. The Controller put on shows for me. The Destroyer showed me that I could get rid of my fears. However, after the fight, I had to stay here as an immortal person.”

 

Jessica blinked. “Are you a god?”

 

“No! I am far from a god. I was just a favorite of theirs. I am an oracle created to spread the messages of my gods. However, people strayed from them, forming their own religions as the population grew. I soon lost my purpose.”

 

Tim frowned. “You mentioned a fight. What’s that about?”

 

“Ah yes...the fight that happened long before the cycles started. What I’m about to say will be unbelievable.”

 

Brian shrugged. “The situation we’re in is already unbelievable enough.”

 

“If you say so,”

 

She got up to make some tea for them. Tim looked at the page with the Operator. Brian leaned towards him and whispered, “Something’s wrong with this.”

 

Tim put the book down and rubbed his face. He felt like this entire thing just broke him. He thought that after his life ended, things would be over. That was enough to bring him down to the point he would cry. So, he did. At first he didn’t notice, but Brian saw the teardrops land on the coffee table. 

 

Something sparked. Brian hadn’t regained many emotions, but this brought something inside of him out.

 

It was sympathy.

 

Brian couldn’t help but think of their college days. He wished he were back there, taking care of Tim, and actually getting along with him.

 

Seeing the tough guy he knew, have a silent breakdown weighed on Brian’s shoulders. He was still spiteful for the Operator, but at this point, many things were beyond control. He did technically loop Tim into the investigation, not knowing that it would spiral into an insane adventure.

 

Tim wiped his tears away. He leaned back on the couch and sighed. “What’s next? There are still some things I’m weirded out by. How did she know we were even here, and what that fight was about. Knowing how to find these other two gods would be helpful too. We can’t back out of this now. Jessica...I really don’t want you to do this again. After we find the information we need, you’ll need to go home.”

 

This caused the girl to stand up. “What? No! I want to help because this is my problem too. I’ve been investigating the book for months, trying to find any leads. I couldn’t go anywhere with my roommate becoming sick, and now that I have an excuse to find out answers, I can’t back down.”

 

Tim and Jessica started bickering. Brian felt slight guilt, but she was already investigating, it would help to have another person help them.

 

“Tim, let her stay. She’s already in too deep.”

 

“What? You’re kidding, Brian.”

 

“She’s been investigating for a while now. As much as I hate to say this, having another person would be helpful.”

 

Tim sighed. He gave up on the argument. 

 

Shortly after, Ashlyn enters the room. She gave everyone a cup of tea and sat in another chair. She hummed. 

 

Tim didn’t want to drink the tea, but he felt thirsty. Brian was also a little bit cautious about it. Jessica was the only one who drank it right away.

 

Ashlyn didn’t say anything. She just watched them intently. They felt a sudden surge of tiredness. Tim and Brian immediately knew what happened, but they didn’t have the energy to combat the sleepiness. The last thing they saw was Ashlyn picking up the book.


	12. Dazed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy that there are people supporting this story!

Tim woke up in a daze. His hands were tied behind his back. Sitting up, he looked around. He seemed to be in the back of a truck along with some other boxes. Brian woke up around the same time as him. Jessica was on the floor of the truck, still knocked out from the tea.

 

Brian huffed. He seemed more frustrated than usual. His eyes were flaring as he stood up by pushing himself along the wall, trying to find a way to balance himself without hands. Seeing that their only window was to the driver’s seat, Brian made his way there, almost toppling over at some points.

 

Through the small window, he saw Ashlyn driving. She saw him with the rear view mirror, but didn’t say a word. Brian then looked at the road. It seemed to be a forest around them in the dark. Ashlyn pulled into a parking lot near the trees. 

 

Tim saw that Brian’s hands had a red dripping down. “Hey, Brian, are you bleeding?”

 

“No,”

 

“Why are your hands red then?”

 

Brian aimed his gaze at where they were sitting before they woke up. Tim looked down and saw the red substance splattered there.

 

The door opened and revealed Ashlyn.

 

“Oh my, you spilled some of my blood. That’s such a shame.”

 

Tim glared at her. “What’s going on.”

 

The woman frowned. “A lot it going on. I needed to have a certain thing in your system so you’d be safer around the gods. Some of the side effects are sleeping. I’m sure you have many questions. I’ll answer some soon. This is a bit of an urgent situation, so I felt that slipping it in your tea would be quicker than trying to convince you to insert a drug into your system. It was quite hard to carry you all. I suggest that one of you carry her after I release your hands. Before that, I’ll need to do something.”

 

In one of the other boxes, she pulled out a container of blood. “This will prepare you for the unsealing. The blood of an oracle is always a key factor in breaking seals.”

 

She went over to Tim and opened the blood container. Ashlyn coated her fingers with blood and started drawing symbols on Tim’s face. The brunette started moving around, trying to get away from her. He then stopped when he saw her concerned look.

 

“Please, the fate of the world depends on this. Next time we meet, there won’t be enough time to save anyone. You will suffer all over again until the final cycle where destruction will be the beginning and everyone would vanish from existence.”

 

Tim didn’t trust her, but her eyes had desperate panic. He knew how it felt. When Jay died, that was how he felt. When he knew that Brian was dead, that was how he looked like. When he knew that he looped everyone into the Operator situation, this was everything he could remember. Tim was still stiff, but allowed her to make bloody markings. She then cut off the rope on Tim’s hands.

 

Brian backed away, not wanting to be anywhere near her. Ashlyn made careful strides towards him. Brian looked just like a threatened animal. His eyes were so focused on Ashlyn, he didn’t notice Tim at his side.

 

The brunette knew that Brian had to calm down. He wasn’t used to being the calmer one, but he had to be. Tim held Brian’s hand which diverted the blonde’s attention.

 

“It’s alright, once everything is over, we’ll be fine.”

 

Why did he hold his hand instead of the shoulder? He didn’t know, but maybe that was fine. Brian needed to hold onto someone for sanity. He sighed and allowed Ashlyn to apply the blood on his face.

 

Brian squeezed Tim’s hand, as if he were afraid that Tim wasn’t real. Tim did the same to comfort Brian in a way.

 

After Ashlyn was done, she cut the rope and gestured towards Jessica. 

 

. . .

 

Tim carried the unconscious girl through the woods, right behind Brian who was asking questions. “Does Jessica need any markings?”

 

“No, she isn’t a part of this ritual.”

 

“Why is she coming along then?”

 

“I’m afraid that something would take her while we were away.”

 

Tim then asked some of his own questions. “How did you know we were here? What’s with the cycles you keep talking about?”

 

They walked on in silence as Ashlyn pondered the questions. “I have the ability of foresight due to being an oracle. The cycles are a bit of a story but we have time.”

 

Brian glared at her. “Go on.”

 

“Let’s start with the basics. The Creator, had existed after nothingness just exploded into matter. The Creator was the first conscious being in existence. It felt alone, so it created much of the universe today, and is influencing much more of the universe to be formed, even without being there. The Creator wanted to share the universe, so it created Earth and its people. It loved each and every one of its creations. It got lonely, however. The Creator saw that there was overpopulation. Even if the universe was big, it wanted to see them grow together. The creator then created the Destroyer. It was meant to regulate the population. They got along well, but soon, the creator felt cruel for having its creations cease to exist. It’s solution was to create the All Knowing Being to give insight. That’s how Hell and Heaven were made. It also allowed wanderers to be a thing. The Destroyer was angry at this, seeing that it would mean the destruction would be reversed in a way.”

 

“The world was created before the other gods?” Brian asked.

 

“Yes, the Controller was the last to be created. It was created to control the fates and destiny of everyone and everything. It controlled what the Destroyer did and how everyone died. At the time, the All Knowing Being knew the future because it knew the Controller. After a fight between the Destroyer and the other gods, it sealed the Creator away in an attempt to overflow Hell. The Controller is sealed within the Earth while the Creator is a part of Hell now.”

 

“A part of Hell?”

 

“The Creator is in each and every person in hell, new and old.”

 

Tim stopped dead on his tracks. “Then those passionate sufferers we killed…”

 

“That’s right, a part of the Creator was in them. However, it’s better that way. The only way to free the Creator is to kill them again.”

 

“They can be killed?” The men yelled at the same time.

 

“They can be killed with bombs. Luckily enough, they all have one goal.”

 

She turned to them and threw a few bombs at them.

 

“They want to kill anyone near the Controller. That means they’re all coming here. Tomorrow, they’re all going to arrive here. I want to ask an important question.”

 

They listened closely.

 

“Are you willing to end innocent lives and create the biggest massacre in the world?”

* * *

 


	13. The Operator

There were moments of silence after what she said. Brian was looking at her with wide eyes. Tim looked down. They contemplated on what to answer.

 

Ashlyn sighed. “As I expected, don’t worry about the answer now. We have work to do. The Controller isn’t just going to come back on its own. I’ll continue to answer your questions as we go on.”

 

They walked on. Brian seemed to be slower than usual. He was troubled by the question.

 

Tim glared at Ashlyn. His face clearly showing distaste.

 

“Before the Controller and Creator got sealed, the Creator got to create one more thing but it wasn’t too powerful. It made a loop for each time the Destroyer destroyed the universe, however because it wasn’t powerful, each cycle becomes shorter and everything is reset. The only thing that never changed, was my memories of it. If you don’t want to go through what happened between you and the Destroyer again, then you better succeed this time. Last time, you argued too much.”

 

“Last time we came here?! Wait, what do you mean what happened between us and the Destroyer?”

 

Ashlyn turned to them. Her gaze was serious. “That thing you call the Operator was feeding on your fear and despair. That thing was the Destroyer in a less powerful form. It’s trying to regain its original power.” 

 

“Wait that thing is…”

 

“The Destroyer, it targets victims to spread fear, never really wanting to kill until it knows that it will be eradicated. The All Knowing Being is its next target, but luckily, the Destroyer has been kept here, unable to go anywhere or do anything.”

 

Tim staggered back, almost dropping Jessica. He saw Brian freeze in place as well. Ashlyn stopped and waited.

 

Brian looked over at Tim. He knew that this was something big.

 

“I was the one who caused it to spread?”

 

His dizziness stemmed from the thoughts.

 

“You’re not the reason,” Ashlyn murmured. “You just happened to be one of the victims.”

 

Tim wasn’t taking any of this in well. “I’m still one of the bigger factors!”

 

He backed up to a tree. Brian went over and took Jessica off his back and set her down before going back to Tim. 

 

“Look, Tim, this isn’t your fault.”

 

“No!”

 

Tim pushed Brian away. He held his head as tears fell. It was almost as if he felt like the others were unsafe around him. He wanted to run away and die once the time limit was up. No, maybe shoot himself again.

 

All of these thoughts made Tim feel insane. His ears were deaf to the sound of everything. He finally broke. It pushed him over the edge so much, he had to scream.

 

The pain of being a key factor in the end of the world was in his raw voice. He screamed all of his stresses as the tears obscured his vision. Through blurry eyes, he saw Brian approach him with concern.

 

The blonde pulled him in for a hug. They stayed like that for a few minutes. The sound of Tim’s screaming died down. They turned into uneven breaths of uncertainty. It was still better than before. Now the only sounds were their breathing, and the chirping crickets. No words were needed as none could ever comfort Tim. 

 

Then, the sound of rustling caught their attention. They looked at Jessica’s direction, seeing her wake up. Ashlyn’s eyes were darting around quickly.

 

“We better go. We probably attracted some attention from the demented souls.”

 

She started speed walking in a certain direction. Brian and Tim got up. Tim was still groggy from the meltdown, but he knew that no time should be wasted. They both helped Jessica up and explained everything except for the massacre.

 

Suddenly, Ashlyn turned to them. She gave them masks. “The power of foresight allowed me to prepare these in advance. I’ll need to redo some of the symbols on Tim’s face, but we can wait for that.”

 

Tim scowled at his own mask, still accepting it anyways. This was not the time to complain. Jessica got a simple white mask with purple lashes around the eyes. She took it with some confusion. Brian just put his on as soon as he got it. Ashlyn put on her own deer mask with antlers protruding from the top.

 

The woman hid within the trees and motioned for them to do the same. It was obvious as to why.

 

Ahead, was a large group of passionate sufferers. Many of them were holding knives with ease while others had long fingers that could cut away at anything.

 

At this point, Ashlyn handed Brian and Tim some crowbars while Jessica had a baseball bat.

 

“We can’t risk destroying place with bombs. We’ll just have to be quick with this. I’ll try putting up a barrier the All Knowing Being taught me so then no more of them can enter. Jessica will stay with me.”

 

“Why did you give me a weapon then?” Jessica asked.

 

“Just in case something sneaks up on us, a weapon would be nice.”

 

Brian glares at her. “You expect us to just charge in there and kill them?! Do you really think that-,”

 

Ashlyn snapped at him. “We’re not doing this again! You don’t think I’ve tried other ideas in the past cycles?! This is our only good one. Now get out there before more start to arrive!”

 

“What if this one fails?!”

 

Tim was the one who stopped the argument. “Look, we don’t have any time! The end is coming closer with each second we’re speaking.”

 

Jessica nodded. “If this is our best shot, then we’ll need to try our best.”

 

Brian backed down and looked at Tim. “Are you ok with this?”

 

“No, but I’m already in too deep.”

 

They sighed. Brian and Tim looked at each other one more time before smiling at each other. They silently wished luck to one another before the reckless attack began.

 

With that, they charged into the monsters with weapons raised, dismembering as many as they could.

 

. . .

 

So far, they’ve immobilized about forty out of seventy. They were beyond tired, bu they still persisted. Soon, there were only twenty five left.

 

Suddenly, Ashlyn yelled at them. “Come back! Retreat!”

 

Brian and Tim were exhausted. They needed rest. The two were on the other side of a big tree. It was quite a distance between them, but they rushed back, pushing away any and all of the monsters. Tim was starting to limp due to some of the harsher scratches.

 

Still, some of the bigger ones managed to hold on to Brian, causing him to drop his weapon. Tim was already ahead by a bit, but as soon as he saw Brian, time seemed to freeze.

 

The blonde stopped struggling, accepting his fate. 

 

This already felt too familiar, too close to how he lost his friends.

 

Tim saw the two choices, run back, or save Brian. This could be the difference between life and death.

 

Ashlyn’s words fell deaf to his ears. 

 

The brunette ran back and swung his crowbar. Brian was able to get freed from the mess. He started running back, thinking that Tim would just follow.

 

In his path, the dismembered bodies came together as one huge abomination. Before Brian could do anything, its body was knocked away by Jessica’s baseball bat. She then pulled Brian into the bushes.

 

“We made it…” Brian whispered. He then looked to his side, finally realizing that there were only three people here instead of four. He looked back in panic and saw something he felt he shouldn’t have. The scene was unimaginable. He couldn’t even put any of it into words. Brian had no idea how bad these abominations were until he saw what happened to Tim.

 

He couldn’t hear a thing while he stared all he saw was Tim’s tearful smile before setting off a grenade. 

 

There was a small explosion, far enough from the tree to not damage it.

 

. . .

 

Brian grabbed Ashlyn by the shirt. “Why didn’t you tell him to go back?! Why did you just stand and stare at him?!”

 

Jessica was sobbing as the hint of dawn came. Ashlyn was successful in keeping out the other passionate sufferers with her barrier. 

 

It was numbing to Brian. Only rage could fill his system. Tim was gone.

 

That was hard enough to accept.

 

“I knew it would happen.”

 

This only made Brian angrier.

 

“He would have done it whether I told him to come back or not. That’s just how much he cared about you. That’s how much he wanted to make up for everything.”

 

Brian felt his eyes begin to water. “He didn’t need to!”

 

The man stepped back. “I already forgave him. We all forgave him. He already did more than he had to. I already loved him more than I knew!”

 

Ashlyn became stone cold. “Love? The All Knowing Being told me that you only pushed him away.”

 

“I wasn’t thinking! My emotions weren’t stable! Before any of this happened, I loved him. Even when I was mad at him, I loved him.”

 

Ashlyn sighed. “Once this is all over, you’ll meet him again, one way or another.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo maybe the magical barrier thing is too much. What happened to Tim is up to your imagination.


	14. Summoning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope we all enjoy this story. This chapter is a bit of an awkward one to write.

Ashlyn looked at Brian with a look of discontent. “You need to keep yourself calm. Make his sacrifice worth it.”

 

Brian shoved her away, still blaming her for what had just happened. Jessica was the one to approach him this time. She had only just recovered from the tragedy.

 

“Brian, I’m just as angry as you are, but the sooner we’re done with this, the better. The barrier is not going to last. We need to do this quickly.”

 

Brian looked away. “Fine, but this is for Tim.”

 

Jessica nodded. She understood how he felt. She never heard from Jay again. At this point, she already saw the Marble Hornets entries. It was a tragic story, seeing someone she loved being shot right in front of her. 

 

“Let’s do this for him.”

 

Ashlyn walked up to them her focus on Jessica. “You’ll need to fill in for Tim. It’s tragic what happened, but we need to carry on with the process.”

 

Jessica agreed to it and let Ashlyn draw symbols on her face.

 

“Our unsealing will begin now. Because Tim killed all of the demented, we’ll be safe for a while.”

 

She instructed them to get into a triangle around the tree. Her stern expression seemed to be focused on the tree. She placed the books on the ground and told Jessica and Brian the words they needed to know in order for this to work. The phrases were originally Latin, but Ashlyn translated them to make sure the other two didn’t mess up. 

 

Before the unsealing officially began, Ashlyn poured a clear liquid around the tree. She whispered words of prayer and lit up the tree.

 

Brian blinked. “Wait, what’s going on?”

 

“That liquid isn’t just any gasoline. It special for things like this. We need to make sure everything’s ready. Now, follow after me.”

 

A moment of silence passed before Ashlyn started.

 

“We must reverse the seal.”

 

Brian and Jessica then started their own respective phrases.

 

“The mistake that was made,”

 

“The service of freeing,”

 

“The time has come,”

 

“Our lies will come undone.”

 

“Our shame will come as one.”

 

“To unseal, we will sacrifice,”

 

“What is most precious to our creator and our creation.”

 

The fire grew, but somehow it didn’t catch on to the other trees. Ashlyn looked into the sky. She started shouting.

 

“These two have already finished their side of our unsealing. Now, it is my turn.”

 

Then, the fire and the tree disappeared. Ashlyn laughed to herself.

 

Brian glared at her while Jessica flinched.

 

Ashlyn looked at them. “The Controller will come back soon. I need to offer my side of the sacrifice in order to unseal it. That will have to wait. I still have business to do.”

 

She gestured at the bombs. “Some of these make small explosion. Most of them will reach the city this forest is in. We’re going to wipe out the entire forest.”

 

Jessica’s eyes went wide. “Wait, what about the civilians?”

 

Ashlyn was quiet. She gave a sympathetic look to Jessica and pulled her in for a hug. Then, she got a syringe from her pocket and injected the fluids into Jessica, causing the girl to become limp.

 

Brian growled. “What was that? What did you just do?!”

 

“I put her to sleep. It’s better this way. We have a time limit now.”

 

Brian glared at her. “No, I’m not playing your games anymore.”

 

“...”

 

“You’re not going to say anything?”

 

“You better hope that I’m going to make it home on time.”

 

She turned and gave him a sad smile.

 

“I’m sorry. Send my regards to Tim for me.”

With that, Brian lost his consciousness. Before he did, a loud bang rung in his head.


	15. Hospital

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo another one might come out soon so just bare with me!

He reached out for the person looking over him. It was so blurry but he knew that he wanted to find that person again. As he reached out, he saw the other mouthing something. All of that stopped after a bright light shined on him.

 

“Doctor! He’s awake! Excuse me, Paul Underidge? Oh, thank goodness, he’s awake.”

 

. . .

 

Brian spent a few days at the hospital. He didn’t know what happened, but it must’ve been connected to the news. Many people died in what seemed like a terrorist attack, but it killed all of the demented creatures. 

 

His dream from when he was in a coma was strange to say the least. It was as if he was falling between life and death, drowning in water. 

 

Just like before, life was numbing. He had no idea what happened to Jessica and Ashlyn. 

 

All he knew was that he was found with a bullet in his abdomen. Even stranger was the fact that he was right outside of the city that was destroyed by the bombs. After that point, he was rushed into the hospital and in a comatose state for over three weeks.

 

In his sleep, he had nightmares of the moment Tim died, so much so, the doctors had to restrain him. They asked what he remembered. Brian lied and said that there was nothing at all. He wished it were true. He wished he didn’t have to remember those last moments.

 

It was too late though. Everyday was bleak and quiet in the hospital. Brian refused to eat any food given to him, but eventually he had to. The depression fell onto him and created its own static in his mind.

 

Wait…

 

Static…

 

Brian started looking around feverishly. The static…

 

The static, the static thestatic thestaticthestaticthestaticthestatic

 

A nurse looked at him quizzically. Brian dismissed it as he started coughing. It was so much worse.

 

Bloody sheets were taken away and replaced by clean white ones.

 

. . .

 

Brian was still wondering what happened that day he started coughing. It was hard to pinpoint why he felt more unwell. The haunting image of Tim’s face ate away at his mind.

 

“Excuse me, Mr. Underidge?”

 

The blonde looked up at the nurse. “Yes?”

 

“You have a visitor.”

 

She left after that point. Brian glared at the person by his bedside.

 

“So, you’re back Ashlyn...or do you prefer Vivian?”

 

“Whatever you choose, Brian.”

 

“Vivian it is then.”

 

There was a tension between them.

 

“Did you shoot me?”

 

“I did.”

 

“Why?”

 

“I thought that it would be best to put you out of your misery.”

 

“What about Jessica?”

 

“She’s fine. Jessica is with her roommate. She gets frequent letters from me, detailing what’s going to happen next.”

 

Brian sighed. “What now? Is the Controller back?”

 

“Not yet, I still need to do some work. The Creator is back though.”

 

“...”

 

“Brian, you know that after you die, you won’t be able to escape the waiting room, right?”

 

“I know.”

 

“Why is that?”

 

Brian looked at her in surprise. “You don’t know?”

 

“No,”

 

“Then it’s none of your business.”

 

“I can help you get out of the waiting room.”

 

“...”

 

“Just tell me,”

 

“Apparently, I’ve gone too violent. Ever since I’ve died, I had many urges to attack and kill. Almost like one of those things. The god says that it would disrupt the other wanderers.”

 

“I see,”

 

“Ever since Tim came, I’ve been feeling much better. I felt happy.”

 

“So he’s keeping you sane?”

 

“...”

 

They sat in another awkward silence.

 

“I promise that you two will meet again.”

 

“I know,”

 

“Brian, he’s waiting for you. You’ve done all you can.”

 

“I know,”

 

“Good,”

 

. . .

 

Another week passed and Brian finally felt the sweet release of death take him.


	16. The End?

Brian saw the familiar gray sky looking down on him. He was finally free from that prison called life. The blonde sat up and widened his eyes in shock.

 

The fields were breaking down into white nothingness. It was inching closer with every grass blade. The male stood up and walked to the direction of Jay’s house.

 

. . .

 

Nothing,

 

How about Alex’s house?

 

. . .

 

Nothing,

 

Then Tim’s house it is,

 

. . .

 

Brian felt odd seeing that none of the passionate sufferers were coming at him. Mostly because they’re dead.

 

Tim’s house was right there.

 

Brian couldn’t bring himself to knock on the door, but he had to. The moment his knuckles hit the wood, the door opened.

 

Worry was casted into his head. An unlocked door.

 

He entered the house and called out for Tim until his throat started hurting. The deafening silence was the only thing that responded to him. Brian started running and trying to find him.

 

Then, he heard panting. The noise came from a bathroom upstairs. Brian ran quickly, hoping to whatever gods there were, that Tim was safe.

 

He opened the bathroom door and saw Tim having what seemed to be a panic attack. The brunette didn’t acknowledge Brian’s presence as he gasped for air.

 

Brian remembered how it was like in college when Tim went through his first attack in front of him.

 

No, that can come later. What matters is now.

 

Brian kneeled down and gave comforting whispers.

 

“It’s ok, it’s ok. I’m here now. You can relax.”

 

After thirty minutes, Tim’s head fell onto Brian’s shoulder.

 

“I...I’m glad you’re here.”

 

“So am I.”

 

Brian breathed in. “Tim...I’m not going to make it to the other side if Ashlyn fails.”

 

“I know. I know.”

 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry for having these urges.”

 

“Brian, it’s ok. It’s all over now. We’re...ok.”

 

They both knew that it wasn’t ok, but it didn’t hurt to say it.

 

. . .

 

For the last few days, Tim and Brian had been acting as if they were some sort of married couple. Even though they didn’t need to eat, they still did.

 

They were eating some food when Brian confessed.

 

“Tim, I love you.”

 

It wasn’t intentional. It just happened to slip out when things felt comfortable. Tim stopped eating for a moment. He then resumed.

 

“I love you too Brian.”

 

The rest of the evening continued as normal. Brian and Tim read some sort of book that wasn’t an ancient code. They’d talk about whatever they could. Then, they’d go out on a walk.

 

During their walk, Tim “accidentally” brushed his pinky against Brian’s. The latter rolled his eyes and held his hand. It was nice to say the least.

 

Brian and Tim looked at the gray sunset from the trees. They had a slight kiss before watching the sun go all the way down.

 

. . .

 

He still had his emotions intact. Tim had his own emotion slip but they were brought back with Brian. Brian himself mostly felt affection for his partner. It was a weird feeling to say the least.

 

They spent their time enjoying each other’s space. 

 

It was all too peaceful, wasn’t it?

 

. . .

 

It’s been a week and the waiting room was crumbling rapidly. What happened to Ashlyn? They had no idea.

 

There they were, at the convenience store, looking at a god with a little to no control over reality.

 

The All Knowing Being finally spoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m glad you could join this journey with me. There are multiple endings to this as you can probably see. I hope you have enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it!


End file.
